U.S. Social Security International Direct Deposit (IDD) Update

[Mavideol]

Just now, ThaiBunny said:

Absolutely f*****g useless

but we have to use them because we apply from Thailand, what other options

[Mel52]

Absolutely f*****g useless

 

I agree I had to help my wife set up her Social Security Manila is horrible. The va was awesome though. My wife’s Social Security will just go to our bank in the states along with my military retirement pay so we can save that money and I only use my va pension as income deposited into my Thai bank which is at least more than 102,000 baht a month alone just that half of my income, depending on the Exchange Rate sometimes more than that just my va pension. The rest we save in the states my military retirement pay and my wife’s Social Security.

 

But yeah I agree Manila is horrible I dealt with their bs for months trying to help my wife with her Social Security as far as getting it set up but I finally got it done and her money will just go to our bank in the states with my military retirement pay. I only bring my va pension into my Thai account but that’s more than enough to support us both and more than enough to satisfy immigration requirements.

 

 

 

[Mel52]

but we have to use them because we apply from Thailand, what other options

 

Unfortunately none at one point when I was dealing with them for my wife’s Social Security I was so angry that I tried to call Social Security in our home state and I tried applying online but it just kept getting kicked right back to Manila. Their hq in Baltimore is worse I know because I tried elevating it to them as well. But in their defense Manila is the only social security office for this entire region all of Asia so imagine how busy they must be. But still how hard is it to answer an email? It’s not! But I eventually got it done for her because I just kept bothering them relentlessly until I got a response and some action taken on her application so we don’t have to worry about them anymore.

 

 

 

[Mel52]

thanks, now understand a little better, just waiting confirmation from Manila, they are extremely slow answering emails

OH YES they are! The trick is to keep sending them the same email multiple times a day every day and eventually they will respond to you just to make you stop. That’s what I did when I helped my wife with her Social Security. It worked

[Mel52]

If someone successfully sets this up with SCB please post.

Also maybe this was covered already but I missed it.

Can the target bank account have an ATM. card attached?

Can you set it up on an existing account or do you need to open a dedicated account for this?

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

If you are referring to IDD I already did successfully set it up with SCB through the va which was an extremely simple process. If that’s what you are interested in look at almost all of my posts on this topic. See my posts way above this one going back a few days worth of posts and below. I just don’t want to have to write it all again because I already posted A LOT of information about it. I got a debit card with my SCB account with the MasterCard logo on it which can be used online at the cash register if they take cards it’s really good I’m happy with SCB. They’re better than a lot of banks in the states. If that’s what you are referring to I already did it with SCB just read all my posts especially my first posts above from a few days ago, my first few posts above from a few days ago are the most helpful and to the point.

[Mel52]

Pib I do still have to get going now so if I missed anything regarding your questions please feel free to send me follow up questions if you need and I’ll dig out my credit advice and bank records later if you need a better answer. Sorry I’m just in a hurry still. I think I pretty much covered it but if I didn’t answer something you asked go ahead and ask me again if you need and I’ll get back to you later but I think I pretty much covered everything you were asking.

 

Additionally about my visit to my local immigration this morning regarding my questions about my monthly deposits in my Thai bank keep in mind I live in a smaller city in the north east Division 4 and it’s a small and more friendlier immigration office which is rarely ever very busy and they deal very closely and quickly with the Division 4 hq up north. So I can only speak for them I can’t speak for other immigration offices. Regardless I’m good I have all my monthly IDDs covered on the correct calendar days I checked with immigration and they said a few early paydays a year is not a problem according to them. VA pension payments are strictly monthly payments only just like social security and military retirement pay. So don’t be afraid of IDD it’s a great system it doesn’t cause problems it helps prevent problems.

 

Anyway gotta run if I missed any answers to any of your questions above because I’m in such a hurry just go ahead and ask me again and I will get back to you later thanks for your message.

 

 

 

 

 

[Pib]

Mel,

  Thanks.  When you get a chance I would like to know what "specific" code and description is appearing in your passbook and ibanking for the IDD payment.   

 

   From your earlier responses it's clear the IDD payment is indeed made using a USD-THB wholesale rate that basically mirrors the mid-market rate which is higher than the TT Buying Rate provided by Thai banks for incoming international transfers.

 

    Additionally, you confirmed there is still a Thai bank receiving fee which will be Bt200 for most typical amounts of US benefit payments.   A benefit payment would have to be in the approx $2500 and up ballpark to start incurring more than a Bt200 fee based on the 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) international receiving fee most Thai banks use.

[Mel52]

Mel,
  Thanks.  When you get a chance I would like to know what "specific" code and description is appearing in your passbook and ibanking for the IDD payment.   
 
   From your earlier responses it's clear the IDD payment is indeed made using a USD-THB wholesale rate that basically mirrors the mid-market rate which is higher than the TT Buying Rate provided by Thai banks for incoming international transfers.
 
    Additionally, you confirmed there is still a Thai bank receiving fee which will be Bt200 for most typical amounts of US benefit payments.   A benefit payment would have to be in the approx $2500 and up ballpark to start incurring more than a Bt200 fee based on the 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) international receiving fee most Thai banks use.

Hey Pib I’m out right now but I’ll let you know later when I look at my pass book, I don’t recall seeing the transaction codes in my online banking but I always login to my online banking with SCB through my iPhone app not on the computer. But when I get home later or tomorrow I’ll take a look at my pass book and check. Don’t quote me on this but if I recall correctly my deposit transaction code I think is X1 for my savings account for deposits, international deposits, and other transfers I think it says if I remember right but I’ll have to check because I don’t quite remember but that might be right. When I look in my pass book I’ll remember.

I’m actually depositing almost $3,400 USD a month just from my VA pension itself and I’m not looking at my credit advice right now at the moment because we’re out right now but I believe that fee was about 200 baht per international deposit but I’ll check that as well on my credit advice I might have forgotten the exact amount of the fee. It’s not very much so I usually don’t pay much attention to that I usually just glance over that part when I have them print the credit advice. When I look at the credit advice I’m mostly just concerned about the amount in USD/Thai baht, making sure that I can follow the money back to the states, what Exchange Rate I received, and checking my name and account number I don’t usually concern myself with the rest of the information.

I’ll get back to you when I have a chance to look but I’m pretty sure I recall my international deposit fee isn’t more than 200 baht per deposit and I’m Direct depositing well over $3,000 USD a month. Actually there bringing my wife’s birthday cake in now talk to you later.

[Pib]

2 minutes ago, Mel52 said:

I’ll get back to you when I have a chance to look but I’m pretty sure I recall my international deposit fee isn’t more than 200 baht per deposit and I’m Direct depositing well over $3,000 USD a month. Actually there bringing my wife’s birthday cake in now talk to you later.

 

Since you mentioned Bahtnet in an earlier reply, if Bahtnet was used for the final leg of the transfer then a flat fee of Bt100 would apply for branches in the Bangkok area....and for branches outside the Bangkok area (upcountry branches) then either another Bt100 or Bt150 (I forget which) is added to the basic Bt100 Bahtnet fee.   

 

The typical receiving fee of 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) would not be used.

 

Now DO NOT reply anymore tonight....enjoy yourself....we'll all be here tomorrow.

[Mel52]

Since you mentioned Bahtnet in an earlier reply, if Bahtnet was used for the final leg of the transfer then a flat fee of Bt100 would apply for branches in the Bangkok area....and for branches outside the Bangkok area (upcountry branches) then either another Bt100 or Bt150 (I forget which) is added to the basic Bt100 Bahtnet fee.   
 
The typical receiving fee of 0.25% (Bt200 min, Bt500 max) would not be used.
 
Now DO NOT reply anymore tonight....enjoy yourself....we'll all be here tomorrow.

Actually just one more quick one I looked it up on my online banking on my iPhone and my international transfer fee was exactly 199 baht 100 baht for one thing and 99 baht for something else. So yeah just about 200 baht and I’m direct depositing almost $3,400 USD a month just from my VA pension only so I don’t know based on what you said maybe I’m getting a better deal I don’t know. I believe you said if it’s above $2500 USD than the fee is higher I think you said well my deposits are well above $2500 I’m depositing about $3,400 USD a month and my fee is 199 baht a month. I live up in the north east about 5 hours north of Bangkok not sure if that makes a difference. You have a good night as well thanks.

[Pib]

Below is a comparison of US Treasury/Federal Reserve exchange rates and Bangkok Bank TT Buying Rates used for international transfers.  The Bangkok Bank daily opening rate at 0830am was used which is almost always the rate used for US govt payments although the payments will not post until later in the day when the exchange rate has possibly been updated (went higher or lower).    I didn't compared Monday because there was no Treasury rate for that day since it was Memorial Day.

 

As you see, for 3 of the 4 days the Treasury rate was approx 0.5% better than the bank's rate.  For some reason the Thai bank rate was better for Friday....but I expect the great, great majority of the time the Treasury rate will be better. 

 

And on say a $1500 payment that would put around $7.50 more worth of baht into your Thai bank account.  Additionally, you will also not incur the Bangkok Bank NY branch pass thru fee of either $5 on payments of $2K or less and $10 for over $2K.   So, since most folks payments are probably less than $2K, going with IDD for say a $1500 payment would put about $12.50 or Bt400 more into your account.

 

                            28May/Tue    29 May/Wed     30 May/Thu     31 May/Fri

US Treasury              31.82            31.82                 31.77             31.56    

Bangkok Bank           31.67            31.68                 31.62             31.62

 

Edit: and of course one more big benefit of IDD is not having to deal with the restrictions of a Bangkok Bank special Direct Deposit account required for "ACH" transfers.

Edited June 6, 2019 by Pib

[Mel52]

Pib, When you asked about my fee it got me curious and I couldn’t resist I just had to look it up because I normally don’t even pay attention that. I mean 199 baht doesn’t mean much to me so I usually just glance over that part.

 

[Mel52]

Below is a comparison of US Treasury/Federal Reserve exchange rates and Bangkok Bank TT Buying Rates used for international transfers.  The Bangkok Bank daily opening rate at 0830am was used which is almost always the rate used for US govt payments although the payments will not post until later in the day when the exchange rate has possibly been updated (went higher or lower).    I didn't compared Monday because there was no Treasury rate for that day since it was Memorial Day.
 
As you see, for 3 of the 4 days the Treasury rate was approx 0.5% better than the bank's rate.  For some reason the Thai bank rate was better for Friday....but I expect the great, great majority of the time the Treasury rate will be better. 
 
And on say a $1500 payment that would put around $7.50 more worth of baht into your Thai bank account.  Additionally, you will also not incur the Bangkok Bank NY branch pass thru fee of either $5 on payments of $2K or less and $10 for over $2K.   So, since most folks payments are probably less than $2K, going with IDD for say a $1500 payment would put about $12.50 or Bt400 more into your account.
 
                            28May/Tue    29 May/Wed     30 May/Thu     31 May/Fri
US Treasury              31.82            31.82                 31.77             31.56    
Bangkok Bank           31.67            31.68                 31.62             31.62
 
Edit: and of course one more big benefit of IDD is not having to deal with the restrictions of a Bangkok Bank special Direct Deposit account required for "ACH" transfers.

Yes they said that the Exchange Rate would be at least the correct and most current international Exchange Rate when I signed up for IDD. This is interesting. You said most folks deposit less than 2K, $2,000 USD is barely the minimum for a retirement extension you need at least 65,000 baht a month for a retirement extension which is a little more than $2,000 USD. For a marriage extension the financial rules are a lot less strict but still I don’t think I would want to live here on the bare minimum because of the risk especially with the Exchange Rate bouncing up and down lately. I always thought that most people who live here full time on long stay Visas probably made at least as much as I do per month if not more especially now that you have to prove your income for real now. I guess we’ll see what happens next year if there’s a mass exodus or what probably just more people going to Savannakhét to get new visas if they can’t meet the financial requirements but for retirement extensions the financial requirements are stricter even to get a new visa I believe. Your estimated deposit statistics for most people seem kind of low based on the immigration financial requirements.

Regardless I don’t think I could live here on the bare minimum but not everyone is as lucky I guess, but it wasn’t exactly luck to get where I am today either. I’m retired military I spent 21 years in United States Army Special Forces (3rd SFG Fort Bragg, NC) and the last half of my career in a Special Mission Unit with multiple combat tours not including Airborne status for most of my career. All that takes it’s toll on your body. I understand that you are retired military as well that’s what I remember reading somewhere. Talk to you later I’m through half a bottle of Hong Thong so I need to put my phone down now lol.

But your information is educational some of this stuff I don’t know about or keep track of. You seem to know more about economics than I do. In the past I barely even kept up with the Exchange Rate till last year.

[Mel52]

Actually I’ve always known the Exchange Rate everywhere I’ve ever been all over the world but I’m probably just more aware of the Exchange Rate now because it effects me more these days now that I’m retired. In the past before I retired it normally wasn’t my money most of the time. Now that I’m retired I’m more conscious of the local Exchange Rate I should have said.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mel52]

I forgot to ask immigration about this but something else that would probably make great supporting documents are the credit advices. Supporting docs included with your pass book like I was talking to Sheryl about a while back. The credit advises every month are actually your bank records as well, NOT a substitute for your pass book but still they’re bank records that show the details of each monthly deposit as in where it came from, what day it was deposited, and lots of other information that could help if immigration were to have questions. The credit advice also shows that your deposit came directly from your pension provider if you are using IDD as I am.

 

It clearly shows Department of Veterans Affairs on my last credit advise below Federal Reserve New York and Bank of New Jersey. I don’t see why immigration wouldn’t except the credit advices each month as supporting documents included with your pass book since the credit advice are part of your bank account records. If immigration were to have any questions about anything regarding your deposits the credit advices from each month would explain everything they want to know.

 

Even though I probably won’t need them that’s mostly why I pull a copy of my credit advice every payday at my bank the same day I update my pass book every month just in case, and not just for immigration potentially but for my own records as well because it shows everything I want to know about my monthly international deposits including the exchange rates which I also like to keep track of every payday. It’s really easy to get just ask the bank and if they don’t know what you’re asking for just show them your credit advice from the previous month and then they’ll understand that’s what I do and I actually speak pretty decent Thai. I just pull a copy of my credit advice at the bank every month the same day I go to update my pass book each month on payday it only takes a few minutes. Immigration is mostly interested in seeing your pass book I believe but supporting documents are allowed, I know because I asked immigration on the phone and in person the next day. Although I forgot to ask them about the credit advice. Even if I don’t have to show my credit advices to immigration I still like to have them for my own records just like bank statements in the states it’s just good record keeping mostly.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mel52]

Speaking of being a 100% disabled veteran I’m in the hospital right now, at Bangkok Hospital. Today I was feeling really good and I tried to lift weights a little bit but only one set and only 20 reps of 11 kilos (about 25 pounds). I felt a slight twinge in my back afterwards but nothing serious. Then my wife and I went out to dinner and maybe it was the way I was sitting but after a few hours MY BACK FLARED UP BIG TIME REALLY BAD! So we were getting a Tuk tuk home after dinner and my back started seizing up on me really bad. So bad my pain level was 3 times higher than normal and I could barely move. So I told the tuk tuk driver after about 1 minute BANGKOK HOSPITAL NOW PLEASE. And I got a shot of morphine which goes pretty well after a lot of beers and shots including morphine tablets to take home about ten days worth. I’ve been off narcotic pain medication for over two months so I’ve been doing well till tonight.

 

Thank God for tricare insurance for those of us who are retired military because I didn’t have to pay a dime after a CT scan, X-ray, and the drugs. My tricare is free as well no copays even overseas because I was medically retired after 21 years of service and rated 100% disabled. So if it’s a rated disability it’s totally free coverage thank God. Thank God for tricare because these private hospitals in Thailand are getting more expensive lately but I normally don’t pay anything with overseas tricare coverage for rated disabilities. I’m about to go home now the morphine is kicking in good now.

 

 

 

 

[Mel52]

Back problems suck. I have a few vertebrae that have been replaced by metal vertebrae during a back surgery I had 7 years ago before I retired.

 

 

 

 

[Mel52]

If I remember right it’s my L-2 and L-3 vertebrae that were replaced with metal vertebrae after a discectomy and a spinal fusion surgeries. The doctor said that he could clearly see the metal in my back on my X-ray a few hours ago and the severe inflammation in my back. So I got a morphine shot and morphine tablets to take home. They wanted to keep me overnight but I said heck no. So I had to sign a form saying something to the effect of that I was leaving the hospital against medical advice. This happens all the time at least once every 3 months so I know I’ll be fine in a day or two until the next time I try to lift something heavy on the wrong day. Some days it’s not a problem and I can do multiple sets of weight lifting, never like I used to do but still something. I try to exercise and it’s frustrating because I used to be an extremely avid runner and athlete before some things happened to me in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen and just from all the years on Airborne status and the extremely rigorous Special Forces training among many other occupational hazards.

 

I have several multiple combined disabilities that adds up to 340% some combat related and some just from training and other things. So they actually rounded my disability rating down to 100% because you can’t get paid more than 100% obviously. My back problems is just one of several disabilities.

 

I have several including an old head injury from Iraq that was referred to as an “open vault injury” meaning that my head was split open so bad that my skull was open and my brain was literally exposed! That was caused by an IED blast one night in Iraq. I don’t remember anything after the flash and I don’t even remember hearing the explosion, all I remember was a bright flash of light and I blacked out and woke up in the hospital at Kirkuk Airfield a few days later because I was in northern Iraq also known as Kurdistan. The incident happened about 10 kilometers outside of the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah which is normally one of the safer areas in Iraq at the time. So they evacuated me by helicopter to the closest hospital which was on FOB Warrior, that was Kirkuk Airfield which was an Air Force base at the time. I have no recollection of the incident except for someone yelling BRACE and then a second later there was a bright flash and that’s all I remember. They sedated me for a few days so I don’t remember what they said about my brain being exposed, I never actually saw that I was never awake after the explosion and the surgery. But I do have pictures of the staples and stitches in my scalp just above my forehead after I woke up. I still have a 7 inch long scar just above my forehead under my hair line. I was in the hospital for more than a few weeks and eventually they sedated me again and transported me by helicopter to the better hospital in Balad and then to Baghdad a few days later.

 

The doctors in Baghdad were seriously considering sending me to Landstuhl Military Hospital in Germany and then home after that. But after about 17 days I improved and by some miracle I was actually sent back to Kirkuk at my request back with my team and I actually FINISHED my whole tour! I never even left Iraq! The doctors told me that it was extremely rare for someone with an “open vault” head injury to not only survive it but to actually go back out in the field actually in a combat zone at all let alone after less than 3 weeks later after the injury.

 

And that wasn’t my first traumatic brain injury either I’ve had TBI in combat 4 times from IED blasts (road side bombs Improvised Explosive Devices) the first 3 were in Afghanistan before my Iraq tour. I did 4 Afghanistan tours and one Iraq tour and one short tour in Yemen. So I still get the migraine headaches to this day occasionally. Including something called tinnitus which is a high pitch ringing sound I get in my ears caused by the TBI incidents and caused by being exposed to extremely loud noises such as gun fire and not just in combat in training as well and the tinnitus was caused by what’s call close air support (CAS) that’s when you call in air strikes including a lot of danger close air strikes. And when a JDAM bomb drops from the sky that close to your position your ears are ringing FOR DAYS you are temporarily def for a few days after an explosion that close and loud from an air strike which is called close air support (CAS). It ain’t like the movies when those jets start dropping ordnance danger close to your position it’s like the loudest thunder boom you’ve ever heard except a million times louder! In combat you can’t use ear plugs because you have to be able to hear each other communicate and communicate over the radio. In training on shooting ranges and demolition ranges we wore ear plugs but sometimes they slide out of your ears and even in training your ears are exposed to gun fire and explosions, just on shooting ranges, demolition ranges, and CAS ranges where we practiced calling in air strikes. So I still have the tinnitus as well it’s one of many permanent injuries my back injuries, right hip, and TBI are probably my 3 worst disabilities including the insomnia. Every once in a while I get diazepam (Valium) for the insomnia and other benzodiazepines such as clonazepam and lorazepam just from the small clinics where I pay out of pocket. When the insomnia gets really bad sometimes I might go to the hospital and get something stronger called Ambien or (zolerbedien) I’m probably misspelling that one. Ambient is good when I really need it because I have no tolerance to it just one ten milligram pill knocks me out fast and I stay asleep for the entire night. The diazepam and the other benzodiazepines will knock me out but I’ll usually end up waking up after a few hours from a nightmare.

 

I have SEVERAL other service connected disabilities as well some of which are more personal including a history of stage 3 cancer back in 2005. I actually recovered extremely well from the cancer though I was healthy again within a year by 2006 and running marathons again after 4 surgeries and 6 months of chemotherapy. I was lucky because I didn’t even very much hair and what little hair I did lose grew back fast. It was stage 3 testicular cancer. Back then I was in extremely great physical shape as in professional athlete kind of shape. I could run 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) in an hour and full marathons 42 kilometers (26.2 miles) in 2:30:47 for my best time. I ran 5 full marathons all of which were AFTER I recovered from the cancer. I recovered from the cancer extremely well because I was so healthy back then and in such great shape. But I still receive Special Monthly Compensation (SMC K-1) because of the cancer because I had parts of some of my organs removed including my right testical where it started and spread to my lymph nodes, abdomen, lungs, and a little bit into my brain. I had the exact same type of cancer that Lance Armstrong had (stage 3 non-seminoma testicular cancer) back in 2005 and he was my role model after I had it. Luckily at the time I was assigned to Washington, D.C. so I was lucky enough to be treated at Walter Reed by the best doctors in the Army. I spent the first half of my career on Fort Bragg, NC in 3rd SFG (Airborne) and I was later assigned to a SMU in the Washington, D.C. area. I also spent some time assigned to Tokyo Japan as well when I was assigned to the Special Mission Unit it was one of our overseas Field Detachments. That’s when we decided to retire here in Thailand because my wife is a Thai citizen and she has also been a United States Permanent Resident since 1985. She went to the states at 18 years old with her Aunt so she has lived in the states for most of her life longer than Thailand even even though she’s still a Thai citizen. We met in the states 22 years ago and we’ve been married for over 21 years now. Most of my former colleagues have been married and divorced 3 or 4 times so I was just very lucky to find the right person the first time it’s my first and only marriage. When we were assigned to Japan we used to fly down here to Thailand to visit my wife’s family every time I had a chance to take leave or any time off. We lived in Tokyo at the time and we actually saw more of Thailand than we did Japan.

 

Anyway after I recovered from my cancer I STILL managed to deploy on one more combat tour which was my last combat tour in Iraq and my only Iraq tour. My previous 4 combat tours were 3 tours in Afghanistan and 1 in Yemen. If I had not had cancer I definitely would have been on a lot more than only 5 combat tours. Most of my colleagues from SF and other Spec Ops Units have been on at least 10 combat tours and I’ve only been on 5. Having cancer slowed that down a little because even after I recovered and was perfectly healthy and even back to running marathons again I still had years of constant follow up appointments every month including CT scans, lab work, nuclear medicine scans, and lots of other tests to make sure the cancer wasn’t reoccurring. Eventually my follow up appointments were only necessary every 6 months to a year after enough time passed so I did my last combat tour in 2008 through 2009 in northern Iraq (Kurdistan) which was where I sustained my “open vault” brain injury and still managed to stay in Iraq and finish my tour.

 

Most of my Afghanistan tours were during the early part of the war not long after 9-11. My first Afghanistan tour was in December 2001 through October 2002, in 3rd Special Forces Group, we actually replaced 5th Special Forces Group in December 2001 they were the first Special Forces Group in Afghanistan and they actually made the movie “12 Strong” about their story. I was in 3rd SFG and we were the second Special Forces Group in Afghanistan after 9-11. We were on Operation Anaconda and many other high profile missions but we never got a movie deal lol, only ODA 595 from 5th SFG did. When we came home from Afghanistan we’d be home for only a month and then we went right back to Afghanistan again the second time in November 2002 through May 2003, and again in July 2003. Those were my first 3 combat tours back to back it was stressful and we had 3 people commit suicide as a result, not including losing between 2 and 4 guys on each tour from my Group, 3 of which were actually on my ODA (Team) that I saw killed during two ambushes.

 

The first time my team lost a guy was a guy named Vance who was temporarily attached to us from 19th Special Forces Group the first time he was shot in the chest right under the arm pit where the body armor doesn’t cover just bad luck, and we lost two other guys from my team during an ambush from an IED explosion, they were in the lead vehicle and they got blown up just before they started shooting at us. At that moment we were just driving through a bad spot known as a “choke point” which is the perfect spot to set up an ambush. A choke point is a spot surrounded by high ground such as hill tops which was the case during our ambush that day on our second tour or an area driving through a city on a road surrounded by tall buildings with lots of windows. You always try to avoid driving or walking through choke points but you can’t avoid them all. Basically a choke point is an area surrounded by Hill tops, high ground, buildings, where you are boxed in if anything happens. And a choke point is the best place to prepare an ambush because in a choke point you’re stuck if you get hit. The first ambush on our first tour when we lost Vance from 19th Group we were on a foot patrol. During that second ambush on our second tour we were mounted meaning driving and we were on a dirt road in an area surrounded by hills and the Taliban had IEDs set up to take out our lead and rear vehicles in order to box us in. Normally during an ambush the number one priority is called “GETTING OFF THE X” meaning that you drive as fast as possible out of the “kill zone” and then double back around if possible and try and flank them and kill them as long as the enemy element isn’t too big. I was in the second vehicle behind the lead vehicle that got blown up and I still feel guilty about that because I was actually supposed to be in the lead vehicle that was blown up but at the last minute before we went outside the wire on the mission our Team Leader switched us around and one of the guys who died in the lead vehicle switched trucks with me and I was supposed to be sitting in the same seat in the same vehicle where he was killed Timothy Goodwin was his name and if they had not switched us I would have been killed instead of him. What really made me feel the most guilty about it was that I was glad it wasn’t me who died but it wasn’t my decision to switch trucks I was just following orders I wasn’t in charge. Instead I was in the second vehicle on the 50. Caliber Machine Gun turret. The rear vehicle was blown up as well but by some miracle everyone in the rear vehicle survived it without a scratch. After the IED explosions they started shooting at us in a perfectly formed L shaped ambush. I was on the 50. Caliber turret in my truck so I was just shooting back and trying not to panic when it happens so suddenly you’re just in a state of shock I can’t explain it how it feels. It’s weird because you don’t start feeling scared till it’s over because when it happens so fast it’s like you don’t have time to get scared but only react fast. I remember firing back on the 50. Caliber turret and seeing a few heads pop we couldn’t speed off and get out of there which is procedure for reacting to an ambush because they had us stuck boxed in the choke point. Our 18 Echo (SF radio operator) quickly called for air support and a medevac and we were able to hold them off with suppressive fire long enough till we got our close air support. The shots at us were so close I remember a few times only hearing a HISSS POP because the bullets were hitting so close to me. The guy right next to me who was shoulder to shoulder with me who was helping me reload the 50. Cal fast whenever I’d run out of ammunition got shot in the chest but he was just fine and not even injured because the bullet hit right in the center of the chest plate on his body armor, meaning his body armor stopped the bullet. Him and I were EXTREMELY LUCKY! When our air support arrived it was an Apache Helicopter and that Apache saved all our lives we probably would not have made it more than a few more minutes because there was probably at least 50 Taliban fighters and only 10 of us still alive after two of our teammates were killed in the lead vehicle, and we were getting short on 50. Caliber ammunition about a minute before the Apache Helicopter arrived and took them out with it’s hellfire rockets and machine gun fire from about only 30 feet above us.

 

We also had Quick Reaction Force (QRF) arrive as well at the same time as the Apache Helicopter in a Task Force 160th Special Operations Air Regiment (SOAR) Black Hawk Helicopters 2 of them including the Apache Helicopter. An MH-60 in TF 160th SOAR is the same thing as a conventional UH-60 Black Hawk except the MH-60 (Modified Helicopter) is highly modified and it’s better equipped for Special Operations Units including with two door gunners back to back on each side with a mounted M134 Mini Gun which is basically an electrical powered modern day Gatling Gun with an EXTREMELY AMAZINGLY HIGH cyclic rate, which fires a 7.62X51mm round. So between the Apache Helicopter and the Mini guns on the two Black Hawk Helicopters we were fully covered at that point the 3 choppers took out the rest of the Taliban fighters. If it wasn’t for that air support we all would have been killed for sure no doubt because we were stuck in a choke point and there were only ten of us against at least 50 Taliban fighters probably more than that and they had us in a perfect L shaped ambush. And after the rear and lead vehicles were blown up we only had two trucks with functioning 50. Caliber machine guns mounted in their turrets on top of the HUMVEE. I was personally on one of the 50. Caliber machine guns perched in the turret with NO GUNNERS SHIELD! So we were screwed, we would have been killed for sure without the air support and if they hadn’t arrived so fast we would have at least lost more guys at best if not all of us.

 

Our Quick Reaction Force (QRF) flew into the fight in the two Black Hawk Helicopters it was a Squad of Army Rangers. As the Apache Helicopter and the two Black Hawks were just shooting the hell out of Taliban fighters the Rangers were fast roping from the choppers to the ground in a position where they could flank the Taliban fighters and protect us who were already on the ground stuck in the choke point in the ambush, but by the time the Rangers were all on the ground the Apache Helicopter and the door gunners on the Black Hawk Helicopters had pretty much destroyed all of the rest of the Taliban fighters. So they saved our lives absolutely no doubt about it. We lost two guys both of whom I knew very well for years one of the guys killed that day had a wife and SEVEN DAUGHTERS SO VERY VERY SAD. It was such a bad scenario that we were lucky we only lost two guys. That incident was by far the worst thing I’ve ever seen in combat and I’ve been in other incidents where we made contact with the enemy before but never anything that horrific.

 

The only other incident in combat I’ve ever been involved in that was even close to that bad was the Operation Anaconda Mission in Afghanistan in March 2002 also during my first tour in Afghanistan. That one is just two long to explain and it was horrible we were out there for 18 days against some EXTREMELY HARD CORE Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters. The Operation Anaconda Mission GOT VERY UGLY! I don’t talk about that one very much we were out there from around March 1st through March 18th of 2002 getting VERY LITTLE SLEEP for the whole 18 days and we ran out of water a few times for almost a few days before we could get a resupply via air drop.

 

We almost even ran out of ammunition a few times and had to have multiple resupplies via air drop, that’s where they fly a C-130 over and drop a bundle by parachute with our supplies strapped down to the pallets, they dropped us the supplies that we couldn’t live without such as water and ammunition. In combat the 4 most important things are 1. water 2. ammunition 3. our radios for emergency communications to call for air strikes, medevacs for wounded and exfiltration the hell out of there, and 4. food. Without at least water and ammunition in combat you won’t last long alive. Water and ammo are the two most important items in combat.

 

Operation Anaconda was a huge multi unit combat operation in March 2002 in the mountains of Afghanistan and it was still extremely cold at the time. Afghanistan doesn’t start warming up until mid April normally but in those mountains the cold was even worse. My ODA was in the Arma Mountains during Operation Anaconda but it was an absolutely huge operation with conventional forces involved such as an entire Brigade from the 101st and multiple unconventional forces as well such as my old unit at the time 3rd Special Forces Group and other unconventional Special Operations Units. Operation Anaconda covered A HUGE AREA from the Shahi Kot Valley to the Arma Mountains to the cities of Ghazni to Zormat to Khost and almost all the way to the Pakistani border. Operation Anaconda at the time was the largest combat operation or rather battle since the battle of Tora Bora. The battle of Tora Bora occurred in December 2001 literally at the exact same time I was just arriving in Afghanistan for my first combat tour in December 2001. I was not involved in the battle of Tora Bora but 3rd Battalion from my Special Forces Group (3rd SFG) was involved in the battle of Tora Bora.

 

Anyway I don’t like talking about the details of Operation Anaconda it was long and tough and violent. During Operation Anaconda we lost one guy from my Unit 3rd Special Forces Group from 3rd Battalion a guy named Stan Harriman who was a Chief Warrant Officer, he was in my SF Group but in a different Battalion. Chief Harriman was in 3rd Battalion and I was in 2nd Battalion 3rd Special Forces Group. But I did know him a little bit but not that well, I went through SERE School with Chief Warrant Officer Harriman, SERE Schools is Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) School. SERE is basically POW training and teaches survival obviously as in living off the land basically the “Rambo kind of stuff” it teaches escape and evasion, and different types of resistance techniques to interrogation, forced labor, indoctrination by the enemy if you’re ever captured behind enemy lines and resistance to a lot of things that happen to Prisoners of War (POWs). The first phase of SERE school focuses only on survival and escape techniques all out in the field, edible plants hunting and trapping small animals stuff like that as well as escape techniques from different types of prisons/foreign detention facilities and you do a lot of crawling through extremely narrow tunnels in the dark at night stuff like that. I actually had fun during phase 1 of SERE school, but later on in the course it is a LONG WAY FROM “FUN”. Then the second phase of SERE School is all in the class room for about a week learning about different types of resistance techniques especially resistance to interrogation and how to act and what to say and what not to say when in captivity and sticking to your cover story. Basically in captivity you say as little as possible and keep your mouth shut and only speak when absolutely necessary, keep your head down and NEVER DO ANYTHING TO PISS OFF YOUR CAPTORS try to give them as little information as possible and none at all if possible. If they offer you food and water eat and drink it all fast. In SERE school they always preach “KEEP THE FAITH” in your country and that you won’t be forgotten or left behind. They teach you to stick together with your fellow prisoners and lots of stuff if in captivity.

 

In the class room phase of SERE school they also have veterans who were former POWs for real as guest speakers. Including a few famous ones. At the graduation ceremony I had a few of the former POWs who were guest speakers autograph my SERE diploma one who was a POW in Germany during World War II, one who was a POW in Japan during World War II, and a famous former POW from the infamous Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War named Doug Hegdahl, if you have never heard of Doug Hegdahl I highly recommend you look him up on google it was an honor to meet him and have him autograph my SERE diploma, and another guy who was a former POW in China and North Korea during the Korean War also autographed my SERE diploma at graduation. That was pretty cool talking to those guys. After the class room phase of SERE school comes survival/evasion phase, most of SERE school is on Camp MacKall, North Carolina near Fort Bragg but evasion phase is all off base on private property and out in the woods between Carthage and Sanford, North Carolina. During evasion phase you start using everything they taught you and you’re put to the test. Evasion phase is 7 days out there with a 5 man team and the only food and water you get is what you can find out there in the woods. I remember we did pretty good one day out there we made a homemade fishing pole with 550 cord string (the strings inside parachute cord) tied to a stick and we used a needle out of a sewing kit as our hook by bending it and tying it to the end of the string. Then we found worms as bait near the river or creek in the damp areas in the mud which is the best place to find worms. So we were fishing and we got very lucky because we caught like 20 small Blue Gail fish, small fish but a lot of them enough for the whole team, and when we were done fishing we found a harmless Black Snake and we killed it to and cooked it with all the fish and we ate well that one day. Finding water out there is easy there are creeks with clear flowing water all over the woods of North Carolina. They also teach you how to make a fire without a lighter not only to cook but to boil your water as well if necessary. When boiling water it’s always fastest if you use cedar wood to make your fire if you can find cedar because cedar burns hotter than any other wood, that’s just another survival technique. There was one night on our evasion phase by day 5 where we were absolutely starving so we snuck into a residential neighborhood and we quickly ran up to a house where we saw two trash bags outside and we took them and quickly ran back into the wood line. It’s evasion phase so obviously the point is to evade and avoid detection and to hide well. Well we opened the trash bags that night AND BOY DID WE GOT LUCKY! The trash bags were full of left over food there was left over pizza and cake and we ate it all out of someone’s garbage. When you’re that hungry you don’t care anymore you’ll take whatever you can get. We were even eating bugs and road kill. During survival phase they also teach you what plants are edible and which ones to avoid if they’re poisonous. But you’re out there on evasion phase for a week living on whatever you can find edible and sometimes we just didn’t eat for 3 days straight on evasion phase and you’re out there for 7 days on the run trying to evade capture because they are looking for you. So one thing in all Special Forces training including SERE school, Land Navigation and lots of other phases of the training that they preach over and over again is STAY OFF THE ROADS out there in the woods and stay hidden in the woods and avoid open fields and other open areas as well. If they catch you navigating on the roads during any phase of Special Forces training they kick you out of the course because you’re supposed to act as if you are behind enemy lines trying to evade capture. On evasion phase you travel on foot for approximately 100 miles or more depending on your route selection when navigating with only map, compass, and a protractor NO GPS IS ALLOWED DURING LAND NAVIGATION IN TRAINING, and you’re doing all this and carrying heavy gear with very little to no food for 7 days so it seriously depletes your energy level. And also VERY LITTLE SLEEP. During the day time on evasion phase of SERE school sometimes you’ll find a hide sight during the day deep down in a draw somewhere in deep foliage where it’s hard for them to find you and if you’re lucky you’ll take turns sleeping for an hour or two at a time while at least two people are always on guard to keep each other awake and to make sure the team isn’t spotted and compromised out there because if you’re seen by anyone out there you gotta RUN and evade. They also have local police come and teach you how to evade search dogs as well and you have to do that during evasion phase for real. THEY MAKE IT EXTREMELY REALISTIC TRAINING!

 

So if you’re lucky if you’re moving fast enough during evasion phase and covering enough ground you might get to sleep a few hours during the day and move by night which is what you want to do is stay down and hide during daylight hours and move by night to better evade detection. But during the evasion phase of SERE school you do have to make it to a certain point over about a hundred miles away by a certain time and day and your team has 7 days to make it there so you will normally not get much sleep out there because you have a lot of ground to cover in very little time with very little energy because you’re not getting very much food out there either if any at all because you’re living off the land. But at least finding water out there is easy.

 

On evasion phase of SERE school when you make it to your point your final destination you have to do what’s called a “partisan link up” with people in enemy territory who are supposed to be friendly or sympathetic to your team and they put you in a situation where you have no choice but to trust the partisans. So when you get to your 8 digit grid coordinates you have to hide it the woods near a dirt road and wait till you see a guy drive up and give you the signal that he’s your contact for your partisan link up. I remember the signal was an old man drive up, stopped, flashes his headlights 3 times, and he then gets out of his truck and pops the hood opens it and then slams the hood shut. Then once we got that signal we then come out of hiding in the woods and meet up with our contact and they even use foreign accents, some of those SERE instructors ought to be actors in Hollywood because THEY ARE GOOD AT MAKING IT SEEM AS REAL AS POSSIBLE! So once we linked up with our contact a big van pulls up behind him and other guys get out telling us that we’re safe now and that they are going to get us home WHICH TURNS OUT TO BE WRONG BECAUSE THE HARD PART HAS NOT EVEN STARTED YET AT THAT POINT AFTER THE 7 DAYS OF EVASION PHASE OF SERE SCHOOL THERE IS STILL ANOTHER 60 to 72 HOURS IN A MOCK FOREIGN PRISON THAT LOOKS SO REAL SOME PEOPLE FREAK OUT AND QUIT! They call the mock foreign prison the Resistance Training Lab (RTL) and that’s when it REALLY STARTS TO SUCK!!! SERE SCHOOL IS THE LAST PHASE OF SPECIAL FORCES TRAINING BEFORE LANGUAGE SCHOOL WHICH IS ANOTHER 6 months to a year depending on your assigned language then after language school they do the big graduation ceremony where they award you the Green Beret and the Army Special Forces Tab.

 

Anyway once you do the partisan link up after you finish the evasion phase of SERE school the partisan group that they give you no choice but to trust puts hoods over everyone’s head so you are blind fold. They tell you that the blind fold is to protect their identity. Then they put you in the van and it’s still about 1AM or 2AM and very dark out there. By now after 7 days of evasion/survival YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTED AND VERY HUNGRY! So once they put the team in their van they just drive you around for hours but you still have to try to stay awake so you can get as much of an idea of your surroundings as possible even though you are blind folded. They just drive you around till a few hours after the sun comes up. Then suddenly out of nowhere you hear a loud BOOM like an explosion followed by automatic weapon fire they were probably shooting blanks I’m sure but you can tell it’s a Kalishkanov rifle fire (AK-47s) just by the sound an AK-47 makes when it’s fired on full auto but you’re still blind folded. So basically your partisan group gets ambushed and then you and your whole team is captured.

 

The instructors who play the role of the bad guys your captors in SERE school ought to be actors in Hollywood because they MAKE IT SEEM EXTREMELY REALISTIC AND THEY EVEN USE FOREIGN ACCENTS AND SPEAK BROKEN ENGLISH THEY TALK LIKE THE BAD GUYS PROBABLY REALLY WOULD TALK IF IT WAS REAL. THOSE INSTRUCTORS WERE SO GOOD THAT EVEN I HATED THEM UNTIL AFTER IT WAS OVER. Once it’s over they start being really nice to you. But during this last phase of SERE school called the RTL (the Resistance Training Lab) they treat you like a real POW and then you have to use the resistance techniques that they taught during the class room phase of SERE. The RTL is a mock foreign prison AND IT LOOKS VERY REALISTIC. Once you’re in there that’s when it gets really tough! You’re in there for about 3 days between 60 and 72 hours depending on how well you utilize the resistance techniques if your class isn’t doing a good job they keep you in there longer until you figure it out and use the techniques right, as long as it takes for your class to realize what people are doing wrong it can sometimes take longer than 72 hours. I don’t know exactly how many hours we were in there because I lost track of time pretty fast. I do remember seeing the sun set and rise 3 times if I remember right which was just so frustrating because you’re absolutely exhausted and hungry and you just want out of there. The time goes by really slow in there and minutes seem like hours. And you’re not allowed to escape because they want everyone in there to get all the training for what it’s like being a POW. They teach you a lot of escape techniques during the first phase of SERE school during survival phase on Camp MacKall, North Carolina.

 

During the 3 days in the mock foreign prison the RTL you get absolutely NO SLEEP AT ALL NONE. If they catch you dozing off you get hosed down with ice cold water and they constantly keep that ice cold water on you from hose. They keep you very cold almost the whole time. SERE school is the only school in the Army where they are allowed to beat the hell out of you and slap you around and get really physically violent with you, as well as the verbal abuse and they treat you like a real Prisoner of War for 3 days. So the RTL combined with evasion phase is 10 days with almost no sleep the whole team very little sleep. Eventually the sleep deprivation gets so bad that you start having hallucinations.

 

I was also water boarded in SERE school and I can attest that water boarding is torture because I’ve had it done to me and it works best after extreme sleep deprivation. In the mock foreign prison the RTL at one point they put you in very tiny solitary confinement cell for I don’t know how long but they definitely keep you in it for several hours. The cell is so small you can’t stand up it’s only like 4 feet tall and maybe 4 or 5 square feet so it’s more like a box. It’s a good opportunity to sleep but I couldn’t sleep in there because I started getting claustrophobic and freaking out. I just wanted OUT OF THAT CELL! But once they let us out of the cell it gets 100 times worse and then I just wanted to go back in the cell again just to be left alone. That’s when the forced labor starts, the beatings, ice cold water, interrogations, and lots of other extremely unpleasant experiences. They use different interrogation techniques such as violence and beatings and I mean extremely intense beatings, they use the fear and despair technique, the friendly interrogation technique acting like they’re nice and offering you food in exchange for information, and lots of other interrogation techniques. Even the friendly approach can turn violent fast is you say something wrong to the interrogator and piss him or her off. They have both men and women in there.

 

Anyway when it’s finally over they have the liberation ceremony where they raise the American flag and play the US National Anthem. And then you know it’s over. Then the instructors who were playing the bad guys start being really nice to you for the first time so you stop hating them. After it’s over they kept us one more night on Camp MacKall so the shrink can evaluate everyone and make sure the course didn’t make you crazy. The last day the instructors debrief everyone individually and tell you what you did right and wrong and they do an After Action Review (AAR). Then the next day they bus the whole class back to Fort Bragg from Camp MacKall and then you’re free to go home. SERE school is something I’m glad I did but I would NEVER WANT TO DO IT AGAIN!!

 

Anyway I was talking about how I knew Chief Harriman from my old Unit 3rd Special Forces Group who was killed on Operation Anaconda in March 2002 in Afghanistan well he was my team leader in my SERE school class. Besides that I didn’t know him very well because he was in 3rd Battalion 3rd Special Forces Group and I was in 2nd Battalion 3rd Special Forces Group. I did spend a month with Chief Harriman in SERE school and he was a GREAT MAN!

 

At the time and I was an 18 Bravo SF Weapons Sergeant assigned to an ODA in 2nd BN 3rd SFG (Airborne). A Special Forces ODA stands for Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) which is also known as an “A-Team” that’s where the name for that 1980’s TV show came from called “The A-Team”.

 

An ODA is a Special Forces Team. A Special Forces ODA consists of a maximum of 12 men including the Team Leader which is an Army Captain (CPT) O-3 (not to be confused with a Navy Captain which is a lot higher in the Navy a Captain is an O-6 which is equivalent to an Army Colonel) and the Team Sergeant which is a Master Sergeant E-8. I was an E-5 Sergeant (SGT) and an E-6 Staff Sergeant (SSG) during my time in Army Special Forces. I eventually made E-7 Sergeant First Class (SFC) later on after I was assigned to a Special Mission Unit (SMU) based in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore Maryland areas. A Special Forces ODA has a maximum of 12 men assigned to the team however most Special Forces ODAs only have between 8 and 10 people because Special Forces just doesn’t have enough personnel to fill up every ODA SF notoriously is under staffed mostly because only less than 30% of Special Forces candidates make it through the Selection Course, Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course (SFAS), and the candidates who do make it through SFAS (Selection) go on to the real Special Forces training called the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) commonly referred to as the “Q-Course”. The Special Forces candidates who do get selected for SFQC less than 50% of them actually make it to graduation and become what’s known as the “Greed Beret”. Now I’ve been retired for over 5 years and I spent the last 10 years of my career working outside of Special Forces assigned to a Special Mission Unit (SMU) which is something totally different on what’s referred to as the “dark side” because Special Mission Units are highly classified. So my point is that I’ve been OUT of 3rd Special Forces Group for about 15 years now including the last ten years of my career in a Special Mission Unit and the last 5 years that I’ve been retired. So I don’t know what regular Special Forces is like these days because I’ve been out of Special Forces for so long now and I’ve heard that A LOT of things have changed in Special Forces since I was in Special Forces. For example when I was in Special Forces you had to have at least 4 years in service before you were even allowed to apply to go through their initial Selection Course (SFAS), and you had to make Sergeant E-5 before graduating SFQC and actually getting into Special Forces before you could be assigned to a team (ODA). Back during my time in Special Forces they only wanted experienced Soldiers and no one who was Special Forces qualified back then was below the rank of Sergeant (E-5) at the minimum rank. Well nowadays I heard that Army Special Forces was so short on personnel that they are allowing Privates fresh out of Basic Training to attend Special Forces Selection, AS IN NEW RECRUITS!!! Although I’ve heard those younger guys have to pass a lot more training then the experienced Soldiers because of their lack of experience. So one of the biggest changes I’ve heard about Army Special Forces since I left back in 2004 after my last Afghanistan tour is that nowadays Army Special Forces is becoming pretty much like the Army Rangers or a Navy SEAL Team basically just a bunch of inexperienced kids. When I was in Special Forces we were all a little older and more experienced between ages 25 to 45 for the average team guy, most Army Special Forces team guys were an average age of 30 to 35 years old. When I started out in Special Forces in my mid 20’s to early 30’s between the ranks of Sergeant (SGT) E-5 and Staff Sergeant (SSG) E-6 I was actually considered a JUNIOR Special Forces Operator back then. But wow these days Army Special Forces has Specialists E-4s and even E-3s!!!!!!! In time in Special Forces you would NEVER see an E-4 ANYONE BELOW THE RANK OF E-5 with a Green Beret EVER since the Vietnam War era!!!!!!! So Special Forces has changed BIG TIME since my time in Special Forces! I also heard that all the Special Forces Groups these days now have 4 Battalions in each Group, during my time we only had 3 Battalions 1st Battalion, 2nd Battalion, and 3rd Battalion and each Battalion is made up of the ODAs (A-Teams). So these days the entire structure of the Special Forces Groups are totally different than when I was in Special Forces, and now they let new recruits go through Special Forces training just like the Navy SEALS do so from what I understand now SF has a lot of inexperienced kids just like the regular SEAL Teams. In the past Army Special Forces was always the best and most experienced out of the other branches of service’s Special Forces Units but not anymore.

 

Anyway before 9-11 before the war in the late 90’s through the year 2000 in 3rd Special Forces Group I was also on a lot of peacetime deployments. Such as Bosnia except Bosnia was sort of a borderline combat operation but we were supposed to avoid enemy contact our job in Bosnia/Serbia was hunting Serbian War Criminals such as people like Slobodan Milosevic. I also was deployed to multiple countries in South America Columbia and Guyana just to name a few. I’ve been deployed ALL OVER IN SEVERAL DIFFERENT COUNTRIES IN AFRICA AS WELL. Africa is 3rd Special Forces Group’s assigned area of the world. I’ve been ALL OVER WEST AFRICA TO ALMOST EVERY COUNTRY IN WEST AFRICA as well as a few countries in east Africa such as Djibouti and Somalia. I’ve also been all over Europe mostly Germany. Then after 9-11 it was almost nothing but war war war for the rest of my career. I did 3 tours in Afghanistan we were based out of Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan in 3rd Special Forces Group after we eventually seized all of their Airfields. The Rangers seized Kandahar Airport by jumping in back in October 2001 before we got there in December 2001 for our first tour.

 

Then in 2004 after my 3rd tour in Afghanistan I was selected to work as an Operator in a classified Special Mission Unit (SMU) based in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore, Maryland area. So I went into the Special Mission Unit right before I was about to go back to Afghanistan again. A Special Mission Unit is a type of unit that I can’t talk about the details of. For example Delta Force is also a Special Mission Unit but I DID NOT work for them. I was assigned to a different Special Mission Unit based in the Washington, D.C. area closer to Baltimore on the Maryland side of DC. There are a lot of different Special Mission Units besides Delta that most people don’t know exist such as the SMU I was assigned to in DC.

 

In the Special Mission Unit I did a short 90 day combat tour in Yemen. In 2005 I had that stage 3 cancer I was talking about above but by 2006 I was healthy again and in the best shape of my life. Then I was still able to do one last combat tour in northern Iraq (Kurdistan) in 2008 through 2009. In Iraq was when I sustained the “open vault” brain injury but by some miracle I recovered in Iraq in less than 3 weeks and I stayed in Iraq and I finished my whole tour. Then after I got back to Washington, D.C. from Iraq I was assigned to Tokyo Japan at one of our overseas Field Detachments working for the same Special Mission Unit. When I worked in Japan I used to travel TDY all over Asia but mostly from Tokyo Japan to Seoul Korea for a week at a time once a month every month I worked there. So I was constantly in Seoul Korea probably almost as much as I was in Japan and I actually lived in Tokyo Japan back then. I was TDY to Shanghai China once and Beijing, China once as well. And my wife’s a Thai citizen so every time I had a chance to take leave we would always fly down here and visit my wife’s family here in Thailand and we’d travel all over Thailand more than we travelled in Japan actually. That’s when I fell in love with Asia especially Thailand and we decided to retire here. At the time my wife had not seen her family in over 30 years because she lived most of her life in the United States so she’s a United States Permanent Resident and a Thai citizen which made it really easy for me to retire here.

 

After 21 years of service I medically retired at 100% Disability so my pensions are huge between my military retirement pay and my VA pension. I’ve had a lot of things happen to me that’s why I’m 100% disabled. I’ve been blown up and I’ve taken shrapnel in the head and face and body. I’ve had an “open vault” brain injury where my skull was split open and my brain was exposed! My right hip might have to be replaced one day in the next 5 to 10 years according to the doctors 5 years ago in the states. I’ve had multiple back injuries I’ve actually broken my back 3 times in the last 26 years. I fractured multiple vertebrae in my back on an Airborne Operation (a parachute jump) once on Fort Bragg, NC that went REALLY BAD because they had what’s called a “miss drop” where the Jump Master gave us the “GREEN LIGHT GO” in the wrong place too far from the drop zone and we were so far from the drop zone that I couldn’t steer my parachute back to the drop zone (DZ). So I landed in the trees and my back got SLAMMED INTO THE TREE TRUNK then I was hung up in the tree about 50 feet above the ground so I lowered my reserve parachute to try and use it to climb down out of the tree but my back was injured so bad I couldn’t climb down the parachute suspension lines so I fell 50 feet and landed flat on my back. And to make matters worse I had landed in an impact area for Field Artillery. They eventually found me and brought the ambulance because I couldn’t move. I fractured several vertebrae in my back on that one. That was the first time I ever fractured vertebrae in my back and not the last.

 

The second time I fractured vertebrae in my back was when I was in a Black Hawk Helicopter crash in Afghanistan in 2003 on my 3rd tour if I remember right. It was a hard landing a VERY HARD LANDING. I’ve actually been in 3 Helicopter crashes before in my time 2 in Afghanistan and one on Fort Bragg on a training operation.

 

The 3rd and last time I fractured two vertebrae in my back was in a car accident in training we were in civilian cars practicing evasive driving tactics on an old Airfield runway in Pennsylvania and the driver of the car chasing me during the training decided that it would be a good idea to do a pit maneuver on me while driving at speeds in excess of 80MPH (Miles Per Hour NOT kilometers) and my car rolled 6 times on the runway we were using for the evasive drivers training and I fractured my L2 and L3 vertebrae in my back AND I SUSTAINED ANOTHER TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY (TBI). I woke up in the hospital in Pittsburgh the next day and found out that my back was broken for the third time in my life with 2 fractured vertebrae. They flew me by helicopter to the hospital in Pittsburgh but I don’t remember any of it because I was knocked unconscious and I was sedated as well. In the hospital in Pittsburgh they had me hooked up to one of those morphine drips where you can medicate yourself by pushing the button and you give yourself a morphine shot just by pushing a button whenever it hurts. After two days in the hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania I was well enough to go back to Washington, D.C. where I was assigned at the time but I was flown back home by helicopter and stopped at Walter Reed hospital first because they wouldn’t let me drive back home because of the brain injury and the fractured vertebrae. Then my wife picked me up from Walter Reed hospital and drove me home where I had a month of medical leave after that accident.

 

Because of all of my severe back injuries I’ve had a few back surgeries as well including a spinal fusion and 2 diseconomies. I have 5 vertebrae in my back that they removed and replaced with metal vertebrae. So I have metal holding my back together I’m very VERY LUCKY that I’m not paralyzed. And I used to be an extremely avid runner and I was fast to for long distances. I’ve ran 5 full marathons the Marine CORPS Marathon in Washington, D.C., the National Marathon in Washington, D.C., the Baltimore Marathon, the Bangkok Marathon in November 2010, and the Tokyo Marathon the last day of February 2011 when we were still living in Tokyo Japan. I remember shortly after the Tokyo Marathon in 2011 a few weeks later on March 11th 2011 we lived through that HUGE 9.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan and caused the tsunami up in Sendai and caused the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant to meltdown. It was the third most powerful earthquake in recorded history. We lived through that and two months of aftershocks twice a day for almost two months straight every day some as powerful as 7.0 magnitude and we lived through the rolling blackouts for two months every single night after the big 9.0 magnitude earthquake in Japan on March 11th 2011. Unfortunately because of my multiple combined service connected disabilities I will never run ever again especially because of all the metal disks holding my back together my bad right hip, and multiple other disabilities.

 

My disability ratings adds up to 340% if you add them all up individually so they actually rounded my disability rating down to 100% because obviously you can’t get paid more than a 100% disability rating. So that’s why my monthly VA pension is so huge, and I’m 21 years retired military from Special Forces and I spent the last half of my career the last 10 years of my military career assigned to a Special Mission Unit (SMU) based in the Washington, D.C./Maryland area.

 

When I first joined the Army as a Private I started out my first few years in the 82nd Airborne Division on Fort Bragg. Then I went through Special Forces training, but I actually did not pass the Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS) Course the first time because I was injured and broke my foot THE SECOND TO THE LAST DAY OF THE COURSE!!! But after I healed I went back and I passed Selection and SFQC as well all the Special Forces training which is over 2 years of training for the Special Forces Medics it’s like 3 years of training total for all the phases of the course combined but I was just a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant (an 18 Bravo) so all the phases of the course for me was a total of almost two years including SERE school and language school for Arabic and Farsi. I was assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group in Fort Bragg for 9 years.

 

When I was selected for the Special Mission Unit (SMU) based in the Washington, D.C. area I went through another year of training mostly in Virginia not including an additional language school, I went to the additional language school for Korean (Hangul). Some of the training for that Special Mission Unit was on a base near Williamsburg, Virginia called Camp Perry, Virginia. But their Selection Course for the SMU was actually in Nevada and their Operator’s Training Course (OTC) was all over the state of Virginia including part of it on Camp Perry, Virginia. So I spent the last 10 years of my career assigned to that Special Mission Unit based in the DC/Maryland area and I retired from that unit in 2014 after my Tokyo assignment. And we decided to retire here in Thailand and I love it here in Thailand we’ve been here for 5 years now and I still love Thailand. So that’s my story about why I’m 100% disabled, I have multiple combined service connected disabilities but it’s mostly because I have metal disks in my back holding it together and I was back in the hospital again last night because of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mel52]

This is on topic sorry it’s long but it’s about my disabilities and the IDD program. It’s fine. The morphine I was given at the hospital makes me chatty sometimes I guess.

 

 

 

 

[Pib]

On 6/4/2019 at 7:26 PM, Pib said:

 

As FYI....the family member's payment today (3 June) did "not" arrive via IDD...still arrived via ACH. 

 

So, if Manila meant the 3 June payment then they told me a fib.  But maybe they meant for the June benefit payment which would occur 3 July.   Will need to ask Manila....ask them did they mean the 3 Jun payment for the May benefit or 3 Jul payment for the June benefit. 

 

If they meant 3 Jun then something fell through the cracks in their processing of the IDD form...they will need to relook....see what went astray.   Or like mentioned, maybe they meant for the June benefit month which is paid in early July.  

 

Contacted Manila about "why didn't the 3 June payment arrive via IDD like you said earlier it would?  Got a reply yesterday from Manila that they are re-inputting the family member's IDD info and update will occur within 5 business days.  Checked the family member's SSA online account and it does show a direct deposit change scheduled for 17 June but it doesn't give full details of the change.

 

Hopefully the change is correct...I say this as Manila has made typo mistakes before which created payment problems for the family member...and took months and months to get corrected....it shouldn't be this hard with Manila but it can be sometimes.  A lot depends on the Manila rep your SSN is assigned to....and they rotate SSN assignments approx once per year.  

 

Assuming the change is correct I don't know if 17 June meets whatever cutoff date to ensure the next payment (i.e., 3 July) is made under IDD vs ACH...it may turn out to be 3 Aug before the change actually goes into effect.  Time will tell.  

 

[JimGant]

On 6/10/2019 at 11:20 AM, Mel52 said:

This is on topic sorry it’s long but it’s about my disabilities and the IDD program. It’s fine. The morphine I was given at the hospital makes me chatty sometimes I guess.

 

Mel, don't apologize. I read every word with fascination-- just more appealing to my American spirit than reading about imbeciles with bone spurs. Anyway, glad you're getting the compensation you deserve -- and glad to have you as a fellow American here in Thailand. Cheers.

[Sheryl]

Contacted Manila about "why didn't the 3 June payment arrive via IDD like you said earlier it would?  Got a reply yesterday from Manila that they are re-inputting the family member's IDD info and update will occur within 5 business days.  Checked the family member's SSA online account and it does show a direct deposit change scheduled for 17 June but it doesn't give full details of the change.
 
Hopefully the change is correct...I say this as Manila has made typo mistakes before which created payment problems for the family member...and took months and months to get corrected....it shouldn't be this hard with Manila but it can be sometimes.  A lot depends on the Manila rep your SSN is assigned to....and they rotate SSN assignments approx once per year.  
 
Assuming the change is correct I don't know if 17 June meets whatever cutoff date to ensure the next payment (i.e., 3 July) is made under IDD vs ACH...it may turn out to be 3 Aug before the change actually goes into effect.  Time will tell.  
 

Pib

I am very hesitant to send my direct deposit form to Manila having only just undone errors that prevented me from getting my SS benefits for months. I'm going to be in the US next month, do you think this is something I could do in person at an SS office?

Sent from my SM-J701F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Pib]

Just now, Sheryl said:

Pib

I am very hesitant to send my direct deposit form to Manila having only just undone errors that prevented me from getting my SS benefits for months. I'm going to be in the US next month, do you think this is something I could do in person at an SS office?

Sent from my SM-J701F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

I expect you could.  Or just send it to the head office in Baltimore...see below snapshot from page 2 of the IDD for Thailand form....while page 1 of the form uses the Manila address that don't mean you can't send it to Baltimore.

 

And yeap, I know exactly how you feel about Manila...the time and effort in getting Manila to fix problems they create thru errors is very frustrating.  Or they say they do something but don't.  And when  they sometimes takes a long time to respond even with repeated followups and then when responding not even answer the question you asked it just makes a person mad.  A person's experience with Manila seems to be greatly influenced by the rep your SSN is assigned to....some reps have their stuff together; others no so much. 

 

[Sheryl]

I expect you could.  Or just send it to the head office in Baltimore...see below snapshot from page 2 of the IDD for Thailand form....while page 1 of the form uses the Manila address that don't mean you can't send it to Baltimore.
 
And yeap, I know exactly how you feel about Manila...the time and effort in getting Manila to fix problems they create thru errors is very frustrating.  Or they say they do something but don't.  And when  they sometimes takes a long time to respond even with repeated followups and then when responding not even answer the question you asked it just makes a person mad.  A person's experience with Manila seems to be greatly influenced by the rep your SSN is assigned to....some reps have their stuff together; others no so much. 
 

My rep is absolutely terrible.

I'll try while in the US...thanks! Anything to avoid Manila.

Sent from my SM-J701F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Rhys]

15 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

My rep is absolutely terrible.

I'll try while in the US...thanks! Anything to avoid Manila.

Sent from my SM-J701F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Yes, SSM takes a bit of time, but they actually do what they promise.  US wait time on the phone is about 30 minutes then a live voice and action..

 

This is such a pain to smooth out..

[Scott424]

I sent an email to the Manila office last night before I went back and read the last couple of months posts in this thread asking them what i needed to do.  I was surprised to get a reply this morning already.  They attached the form I need to fill out and told me to scan it and email back to them.

 

I filled out the form and took it to Bangkok Bank and was told that I would still need to use an account that does not have an atm card, so at least here in Hua Hin it seems all the restrictions they placed on the accounts for the ACH direct deposit apply to IDD accounts.  They also told me they could not sign the form I had, since I had planned to use another bank if those restrictions were in place I did not ask why they could not sign it.

 

I then went to Krungsri where I have two savings accounts and they also told me they could not sign a document that they did not generate.  She told me they could print out a document and stamp it but could not sign my form.  Has anyone else run into this issue and if so how did you resolve it?  If not which banks have others used that were able to get them to fill out and sign that section of the form?

Edited June 20, 2019 by Scott424

[Mel52]

I sent an email to the Manila office last night before I went back and read the last couple of months posts in this thread asking them what i needed to do.  I was surprised to get a reply this morning already.  They attached the form I need to fill out and told me to scan it and email back to them.
 
I filled out the form and took it to Bangkok Bank and was told that I would still need to use an account that does not have an atm card, so at least here in Hua Hin it seems all the restrictions they placed on the accounts for the ACH direct deposit apply to IDD accounts.  They also told me they could not sign the form I had, since I had planned to use another bank if those restrictions were in place I did not ask why they could not sign it.
 
I then went to Krungsri where I have two savings accounts and they also told me they could not sign a document that they did not generate.  She told me they could print out a document and stamp it but could not sign my form.  Has anyone else run into this issue and if so how did you resolve it?  If not which banks have others used that were able to get them to fill out and sign that section of the form?

What your local Bangkok Bank branch is telling you is wrong. I just started using IDD last payday with SCB and I do have a debit card with my account. Turns out that the Thai bank does not have any say in the matter you just fill out that IDD form and send it back to them and your direct deposits will just start automatically being sent to your Thai bank account no matter what your local Bangkok Bank branch says. And you’ll be paid on time the same day you would have been paid in the states. Last payday my direct deposit was in my Thai account about 8 hours earlier than the East Coast time zone usually deposits it in a US bank. You don’t have to go see Bangkok Bank about it or ask them about it. Although it might be a good idea to show the bank teller the form just to make sure you have all the bank information right such as the branch code stuff like that, that’s what I did at my local SCB branch and they actually filled in their bank branch information for me on the form so I’d know the correct information. Don’t worry about what the local bank branch says all you have to do is fill out the IDD form and send it back to your pension provider. I did the IDD thing and I love it I have it set up through the VA and it’s a lot easier to get done than you think, but that’s the VA I know the Manila Social Security Office can be real slow if you don’t stay on em hard.

[Scott424]

Mel52, thanks for your reply, the form I have has a place for the Bank official to print their name and provide their signature, did your contact at SCB sign your form?  Krungsri said they could not sign it.  As to Bangkok Bank, they have a standing policy (probably just for them) that for direct deposit from Social Security you have to use an account without a debit card so you have to go in person to withdraw your money, I think this was a fraud prevention measure they implemented.

 

 

[ubonjoe]

3 hours ago, Scott424 said:

Mel52, thanks for your reply, the form I have has a place for the Bank official to print their name and provide their signature, did your contact at SCB sign your form?  Krungsri said they could not sign it.  As to Bangkok Bank, they have a standing policy (probably just for them) that for direct deposit from Social Security you have to use an account without a debit card so you have to go in person to withdraw your money, I think this was a fraud prevention measure they implemented.

His direct deposit was for his VA disability payments. No signature needed on the form for it.

The SSA form is a different in many ways.

I have seen reports of a Bangkok Bank signing the form for a standard saving account.

A good way to get info about would be to contact the main office in Bangkok that handles international transfers. Try this number. 022301323 . The helped me when I was getting mine set up via New York a few years ago.

 

[Mel52]

Mel52, thanks for your reply, the form I have has a place for the Bank official to print their name and provide their signature, did your contact at SCB sign your form?  Krungsri said they could not sign it.  As to Bangkok Bank, they have a standing policy (probably just for them) that for direct deposit from Social Security you have to use an account without a debit card so you have to go in person to withdraw your money, I think this was a fraud prevention measure they implemented.  

 

 

 

Really? Are you sure you have the right form? And are you sure you have the most current form? Be sure and get the form for IDD from the Manila Social Security Office. No one had to sign my IDD form except me. I just filled it out and signed it and sent it back to the VA on May 7th and my next direct deposit went straight into my Thai account on the correct payday. But that’s just my VA pension I don’t draw Social Security and I didn’t really look at the IDD form from Social Security in very much detail either only the VA’s IDD form, so I don’t know for sure about Social Security maybe it’s different for Social Security but I really don’t think it is, it’s the same Treasury Department program but I don’t Social Security is different in a lot of ways.

 

Actually my wife will begin receiving her Social Security next month should be sometime during the first week of July according to the Manila Social Security Office and we were considering having her Social Security sent to our Bangkok Bank account but we decided against that and we decided to just save her Social Security income in our bank in the states with my military retirement pay and I only bring my VA pension into Thailand via IDD. Since I’m rated 100% disabled my VA pension is more than enough alone to support us both and more than enough to satisfy immigration requirements for my annual extensions based on marriage. The rest of our income we save such as my military retirement pay and my wife’s Social Security once it starts next month.

 

I have a question for you actually. My wife’s Social Security will be going to our joint bank account in the states with my military retirement pay and we save that money. My wife and I have debit cards for the US bank account that her Social Security will be going into starting next month. Is that a problem? I helped my wife get her US Social Security set up and they never asked us about that regarding our US bank when we provided them with our bank account name, routing, and account number nor did they tell us that was even a rule regarding the debit cards when I set up my wife’s direct deposit to our US Bank. So I’ve never heard of that or maybe it’s just not a problem because we live overseas and use a US bank. Social Security in Manila never said that the account couldn’t have debit cards so I’ve honestly never heard that one but we’ve never dealt with Social Security before until recently earlier this year regarding my wife’s Retirement Social Security.

 

But anyway I don’t think your IDD form for Social Security has to be signed by your Thai bank at all, my IDD form for the VA didn’t, and when we were thinking about doing that for my wife’s Social Security I don’t recall seeing that on the IDD form I got from Manila for my wife. But I could be wrong I have only done this IDD through the VA and not Social Security. However regardless of the agency VA, Social Security, or OPM it’s the same IDD program being ran by the Treasury Department so I am pretty sure the process of setting up the IDD should be the same for all 3 agencies but I don’t know I’ve only set up my IDD through the VA not Social Security so I could be wrong.

 

To be sure make sure you have the correct and the most current IDD form from the Manila Social Security Office. There email address is [email protected] and their phone number is (+632) 301-2459. I’ll check my email and see if I have a copy of the most current IDD form from Manila and send it to you myself but at the moment I’m away from my computer and I’m on my smartphone. I can only tell you for sure that this was absolutely not necessary for my IDD through the VA. I didn’t have to show my IDD form to SCB, have them sign anything, or show anyone at SCB anything at all, I just filled out the form signed it and sent it back to the VA via email and it was as simple as that and now my VA IDD is setup to my Thai bank through the US Treasury Department it was extremely simple, but again that’s the VA not Social Security. So I don’t know for sure about Social Security. If I can send you the correct IDD form for Social Security I will from a computer if not definitely check with Manila because you might have an old IDD form or something.